


Something lonesome about you

by cherrywongs



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Jaehyun Is Soft, M/M, Mutual Pining, Swearing, Yuta is Plain Dumb
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-23
Updated: 2019-07-23
Packaged: 2020-07-12 05:33:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,770
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19941025
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cherrywongs/pseuds/cherrywongs
Summary: Yuta becomes really curious about his early customer, it could be because of his weird habits, or the fact that he has a pretty face and a warm smile. Maybe both.Turns out, Jaehyun is so, so familiar.





	Something lonesome about you

**Author's Note:**

> you may have noticed the title and a sentence in the summary are reminiscences of hozier's 'from eden', that's because i adore his work, and because for some weird reason i thought this yuta could relate to the lyrics

Yuta doesn’t get paid enough. For fuck's sake, he _barely_ gets paid.

There he is, the boy who always waits outside his workplace for him to open.

When he agreed to have the first shift of the day and he was told he would be the only employee in the restaurant, he didn’t think it would be that hard. He’d had company after 9 am and he doubted someone would come and order a lot before that time.

Oh, how wrong he was.

Early Bird has come almost every day at the same time the past two weeks. He enters right after Yuta unlocks the door and sits in the same seat, near the window, next to the old radio. 

One morning he asked if he could turn on the stereo, Yuta said yes, and ever since, he hasn’t asked before putting on the news.

After Yuta opens the curtains, turns on the air conditioner and puts his bag behind the counter, Early Bird calls a little ‘hey’ and smiles when Yuta looks at him.

“Can you take my order, please?” He says in a string of voice.

Yuta nods, trying his best to not look annoyed at him, because the boy doesn’t look like a bad person, and because he always leaves a tip. It’s just the fact that he orders 4 or 5 dishes every morning, and Yuta has to serve him in 30 minutes or less because that’s the business’ policy.

“What do you want today?” He asks, filling up his glass with water.

“A black coffee, please. Egg toast. And whatever fruit you have today, please.”

Yuta’s eyes brighten, it’s the easiest he’s ordered by far.

“Anything else?”

Early Bird shakes his head.

“That’s it. Thank you very much.”

After ordering, he takes a book out of his backpack and starts reading until Yuta brings him his food.

Yuta bows to him, turns around and walks to the kitchen, switches on the coffee machine and takes the ingredients out of the fridge. He hears statics coming from the radio and some choppy voices before the signal stabilizes, Rheehab starts sounding and he smiles as he puts a pan on the stove.

He doesn’t take long to prepare Early Bird’s breakfast. He goes back to the lounge and brings the boy his order. He smiles wide and says thanks once again.

(...)

Yuta’s boss doesn’t go to the restaurant that day. In replacement, his boyfriend does. Fortunately, Taeyong is not only boyfriend to Doyoung, the moody restaurant owner, but also Yuta’s best friend, and he lets him go before his turn ends.

He needs to buy his sister a book for school she hasn’t been able to find in Japan, if he finds it somewhere she will stop whining about how her professor is going to fail her every time he facetimes home. So after he goes out of work, he crosses the street and walks 6 blocks to get to his friend’s book shop.

“Hello. How may we help you?” A young boy greets as soon as he puts a foot in the place.

“Mark, I’ll deal with him. Go wipe dust from the accounting shelf.”

“Yes, sir.” The boy makes a mocking military salute.

Yuta snorts and pats his friend’s shoulder.

“Nice recruitment, Johnny.”

Johnny rolls his eyes and pushes him.

“Shut up. What do you need?”

Yuta laughs and puts his hand inside his pocket to get his phone out. He opens iMessage and types his sister name in the search bar. As soon as he finds the pic his sibling sent him he shows it to Johnny.

“Do you have this book, big boy?”

“I think we do, you can check in the biology’s section and if you can’t find it I’ll order it. It usually takes one or two days to come.” Yuta nods and smiles in gratitude.

“Thank you, John. I’ll go see.”

Johnny smiles and goes to the counter to check out a book a boy is waiting to pay.

“Come here more often! You never come!” Johnny yells as Yuta walks inside the store.

“That’s because I hate you, Seo!”

Yuta is lucky enough to find the book as soon as he steps in front of the rack, he takes it in his hands and goes back to the entry. He then hears something he’s sure he’s heard before. A soft and low singing voice coming from the miscellaneous’ section. He takes a look at it and gasps at the sight.

“Early Bird!”

“Huh?”

Yuta jumps holding his chest.

“Mark, we haven’t been introduced yet but if you ever do that again I will finish you.”

The boy giggles and leans on a wall.

“You’re Yuta, right?” He nods. “Do you know him?”

Yuta takes a look at the boy who’s sitting on the floor, using wired earphones and browsing through a bunch of books about art history.

“No. Do you?”

“His name is Jaehyun. He comes here every couple of days, chooses some books, pays for them and leaves after chatting about the weather.

“How long has it been?”

“Since he comes here? Like one week and a half.”

Yuta nods. He had never noticed how pretty Early Bird is.

(...)

“Good morning, Jaehyun.” Yuta greets getting to Early Bird’s table. “What are you having today?”

“You know my name.” He says as response. “Did you always do?”

Yuta chokes up, but he shakes his head and takes his notepad out of his apron.

“Of course, you are a loyal customer.”

Jaehyun smirks.

“You’re lying, Yuta.” Yuta coughs and Jaehyun smiles wider. “I’ll have rice with black beans, vegetables omelet, tofu, and radish kimchi. And sparkling water, please.”

Yuta rolls his eyes, but he draws a little smile on his face as he goes back to the kitchen.

(...)

“There is something we don’t know about him.” Yuta knows telling his boss things he doesn’t care about can get him in problems, but it’s 10:30, there is nothing to do in the restaurant and he’s got no one else he can talk to.

“Yuta, there are a lot of things we don’t know about him. The only things we know are his name and how much he likes eating in the morning.”

“You know what I mean, Doyoung.” He whines. “He’s a mystery.”

“Talk to him, then. If you’re so interested in Early Bird go ask him about his life.”

“Are you out of your mind?” Yuta jumps off of his seat. “I can’t go to him and start asking questions.”

Doyoung raises an eyebrow and smiles.

“So you _are_ interested in him.”

“No! I am not. I want to know why he comes here and makes me work needlessly so early in the morning.”

“You are so close to being fired you’re lucky Taeyong loves you so much.”

Yuta giggles and runs to the door when he sees someone enter the place.

“But really, just talk to him!”

“Welcome! You can sit over here, today’s special is japchae, totally recommended.”

(...)

“What are you reading, Jaehyun?”

Early Bird looks up, smiles and closes his book.

“Are you making small talk, Yuta?” He shrugs and Jaehyun giggles. “It’s a take on early 1900’s architecture. It’s not really my thing but I…”

“Already bought all the books the book shop sells on your topic of interest?”

Jaehyun nods and Yuta smiles sitting in front of him.

“Well, you could go to the library and see what they got there.”

“That’s right, I could. But I’m a nerd and I like having a copy of the books I’ve read.”

“How inconsiderate with the environment.”

Jaehyun raises his eyebrows.

“Are you telling me I single-handed caused climate change by buying books that are already printed and will not stop existing if I ignore them?”

Yuta smiles and he can’t help but wonder why he never talked to that boy before.

“Kind of.”

Early Bird snorts and rolls his eyes.

“You’re funny, keep it that way.”

Yuta smiles and gets up pointing at Jaehyun.

“So scrambled eggs and orange juice?” He nods. “Very American of you.”

(...)

“Yuta, do you even like working here?” Jaehyun asks when Yuta brings him his ramen bowl.

“What makes you think I could like working here? Is it my check-in time? The amount of food I gotta cook or the elevated number of dishes I have to clean after people is done eating?”

“That’s exactly what I thought. But my question is, what brought you here?”

Yuta sighs, scratches his arms and remains silent for a few seconds before answering.

“Unemployment, my best friend ordering his boyfriend around. That kind of things.”

Jaehyun clicks his tongue.

“That sucks.”

“Only a little.”

“And what’s your dream, what would you do if money wasn’t a problem?”

Yuta smiles, he’s not sure if it is Jaehyun’s voice, the fact that he’s interested in his life or the way he’s looking at him, but he feels warm.

“I’ve actually got a degree in social studies, but as you can see it hasn’t really worked out, and apart from that I think teaching sports would be lovely, except that would mean getting another degree and I cannot afford that.”

“Yuta, you’re forgetting something important.”

“What is it?”

“As Barbie said once, ‘You can be anything’.”

Yuta chuckles and Jaehyun doesn’t change the expression on his face.

“I am not 8.”

“No, but you still have dreams.”

(...)

Yuta should sweep the floors before opening but he refuses to get to the restaurant at 5:30, that's his biggest no. Jaehyun doesn’t mind Yuta going around the place doing the cleaning after he serves him, so that's what he does every day.

He’s a little far from Jaehyun, moving the broom from here to there when he calls his name.

“Are you free Sunday afternoon?” Yuta stops immediately, holds his breath, unable to process the words he’s heard. He walks up to Jaehyun’s table, sits in front of him and looks him in the eyes.

“Are you asking me out on a date?”

Jaehyun’s ears turn red and he tries his best to hide his dimple smile. He fails.

“No, I’m not. I’m just asking you to hang out with me.”

Yuta smirks, takes his broom and stands up.

“Then no, I’m extremely busy this weekend.” He bobs his head and steps in the hallway. “Now, by your leave, I have a lot of stuff to do. Enjoy your meal.”

“No, Yuta. Don’t do this to me.” Yuta presses his lips together. “Okay, fine, I am asking you out on a date. Please say yes and stop making me feel as dumb as I feel right now.”

“I would love to have a date with you on Sunday.”

(...)

Jaehyun tells Yuta to meet him outside Daehan's Cinema.

Yuta is never late, but today there is a lot of traffic, people walk slower than ever and his car doesn’t move over 50 meters per minute. He hopes Jaehyun isn’t tired of waiting for him.

“Hey, did you forgot about our date?” Jaehyun asks when Yuta picks up the phone and puts in on speaker.

“I can’t believe you said with your whole chest it wasn’t a date.” Yuta almost can hear his smile appear on his face and a little ‘fuck you’ come from his lips. “I did not. I’m like three blocks away, you should buy the tickets for the movie now.”

“We’re not watching a movie.”

“Oh! Then wait a little so you can kidnap me or whatever you want to do, I’ll be there in 5.”

Jaehyun laughs loudly and Yuta hangs up with a smile on his face.

Seven minutes later, Yuta gets off of his parked car, crosses the street and greets Jaehyun who beams at his sight.

“You’re so slow.” He complains, putting on a fake pout.

“This city is slow.” Jaehyun rolls his eyes and bites his lower lips. “So what are we doing today?”

“Follow me.”

(...)

“I didn’t know this place,” Yuta remarks when they enter Sky Rose Garden, in the rooftop of the building.

Jaehyun smiles

“Neither did I. I’ve found it online.”

“What did you enter in the search bar?” Yuta wonders, unable to hide the excitement in his voice because of the beauty of the place.

Jaehyun coughs and refuses to answer.

“Look, Yuta. I know you started talking to me because you were curious.” Jaehyun says, taking a seat in a table near the lights. “I know you wouldn’t have done it if you hadn’t found me in the book shop.” Yuta bites the inside of his cheek and sits in front of him.

“I haven’t discovered a lot of things about you since then.”

“You’ve done. You just didn’t notice.” Jaehyun puts his hand in top of Yuta’s. “I’ll let you ask me about the things you want to know. But first, you have to tell me about that little nickname you used to have for me.”

“Do you know about that?” Jaehyun smirks and nods. “Early Bird,” Yuta whispers, trying to find the right words to not sound like a jerk for giving him a dumb nickname. “I didn’t know how to call you,” he admits. “When I told my friends about my day it always started with you. The boy who gets up so early he’s in a restaurant’s door before the worker who gets there at 6 am.”

“Stop looking so mortified, I think it’s cute.” Yuta opens his eyes wide and looks down. “But it’s also wrong. I don’t wake up early.”

“What do you mean?”

“It’s been weeks since I slept well.” Jaehyun’s voice is the softest it’s ever been. “I go to bed, close my eyes hoping it’s for a good eight hours, but one or two hours later I wake up, knowing I won’t be able to fall asleep again.”

“How many weeks?” Yuta says. It’s the second time in the day Jaehyun ignores a question. “You said you would answer.”

“Four.”

“The same amount of time you’ve been coming to the restaurant.”

“The same amount of time I’ve been living in Seoul... except for the first three days.”

“You came the first two days late in the morning. You seemed sick.”

“I was hangover. The first night I couldn’t sleep, I was so anxious, thinking about how much I would miss my family and how lost I felt. So the second night I went out, got drunk and went back home to sleep. It worked, so I did it again the next day. But when I told my little brother about it he threatened to tell mom about it if I kept alcoholizing myself to sleep. Then I stopped.”

“How did you find the restaurant?”

“I was walking around, looking for a place that sold Haejangguk,” he smiles. “But when I saw you I felt so ashamed to order a hangover soup I just asked for anything else.”

“Why? That’s dumb.”

“Because you’re cute.”

Yuta feels his blood coming to his face so he shakes Jaehyun’s hand and gets up.

“I’ll go find us a drink.”

“Come back with a better excuse.”

(...)

Yuta hands Jaehyun an iced tea and sits taking a sip of his coke.

“I have another question for you.” He says.

“What is it?” Jaehyun looks at him and puts aside the straw that Yuta brought him.

“Why did you want to go out with me _today_?”

“Why do you think I moved here?” Yuta and shakes his head. “I was offered a job. My family thought it would be better if I moved here a month before starting so I could get used to Korea, since I didn’t come here in like, 15 years.”

“And you start tomorrow. So you’ll stop coming to the restaurant.”

“You’re a smart boy, Yuta.” Jaehyun laughs at Yuta’s face. “I only kept coming because I liked watching you. I mean, I like your cooking, but one can find better Korean food anywhere else.”

Yuta takes a second to analyze Jaehyun’s face, the way his hair covers his forehead, how his eyebrows frame perfectly the spark of his eyes and his fluffy cheeks join the smile on his lips-

“I like your dimples.”

“Coward.”

“Okay, fine. I like you.” Yuta puts his thumb on one of his dimples. Jaehyun takes his hand and interwines their fingers. “So, we have a few hours to find a way to help you sleep, you can’t have a good first day at work if you don’t rest for at least 8 hours the night before.”

“God, I like you so fucking much.”


End file.
